Unsettled Spurs face an uncertain future
Longest-tenured players on the roster could leave during turbulent offseason
SAN ANTONIO — The Spurs’ Manu Ginobili has seen better endings than this.
Four times, he has finished an NBA season awash in champagne, hoisting a trophy, reveling in celebration.
Tuesday night, in a crowded visitors’ locker room at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., Ginobili experienced the flip side of that euphoria for the 12th time as an NBA player.
As he reflected on the Spurs’ season that had just ended in defeat — courtesy of a hard-fought 99-91 loss to Golden State in Game 5 of their first-round NBA playoff series — Ginobili forged a smile.
“When you win championships, you get a lot of feedback about what kind of players you are,” Ginobili said. “When you go through tough moments, you do also. We stuck together and fought hard with what we had. That can be a successful season, too.”
As the final horn sounded on the Spurs’ 99-91 defeat in Game 5, the strangest season in the team’s recent history gave way to an offseason that stands to be stranger.
Before the summer is over, the four longest-tenured players on the roster could be out the door.
“There’s a lot of decisionmaking that’s going to happen,” said guard Danny Green, who is one of them. “We don’t know who is going to do what. It’s all so sudden. We just had a game. Everybody is still caught up in the moment.”
Leonard looms large
The question of what happens with Kawhi Leonard will chart the course for where the Spurs go from here.
The 26-year-old superstar forward missed all but nine games rehabilitating a stubborn quadriceps injury. His absence was the primary reason the Spurs dropped to 47-35, their worst record in 22 years.
Leonard spent much of the final months of the season, including the Spurs’ short-lived playoff run, estranged from the team while working out in New York.
He is eligible for a five-year, $219 million contract extension beginning July 1. If Leonard and the Spurs can’t come to terms, the team will likely be forced to explore trade options for the two-time All-Star.
“Everyone has questions, but he’s still here,” Green said. “He’s still part of the team. He’s still locked in, until things change.”
At some point this offseason, Spurs brass — including general manager R.C. Buford and presumably coach Gregg Popovich — will sit down with Leonard and his camp and try to hash out their differences.
The results of those talks will go a long way in determining whether the Spurs will be able to reassume their position as a bona fide title contender next summer.
If the Spurs feel compelled to deal Leonard, they will be forced to rebuild around whatever haul of players and picks they get for him, plus a resurgent LaMarcus Aldridge.
Like Green, center Pau Gasol alluded to the uncertainty surrounding Leonard when analyzing the days ahead.
“We don’t know how that’s going to resolve, to be honest,” Gasol said.
Even if Leonard and the Spurs make up, a sea change could be coming to what has been one of the NBA’s most remarkably stable rosters.
At 35, point guard Tony Parker faces an uncertain free-agent market in his quest to play an 18th season.
Though under contract for another season, Ginobili, 40, says he will take time to decide if he wants to come back for a 17th campaign.
Forwards Kyle Anderson and Davis Bertans and guard Bryn Forbes are set to become restricted free agents. Green and Rudy Gay could hit unrestricted free agency, if one or both decide not to exercise player options for next season.
Reserve big man Joffrey Lauvergne also has a player option worth $1.7 million.
Gay is 31 and coming off a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in January 2017. He could be tempted to decline the $8.8 million remaining on his deal to again explore the free-agent market.
“Obviously I have to go through and assess some things,” Gay said. “But after a season like this, it’s hard not to think you want to come back and fight for a championship. I love these guys.”
Green, 30, faces a similar decision. He has an option worth $10 million next season, but might consider searching for a longerterm contract.
“We’re not getting any younger,” said Green, a Spur since 2010. “Obviously, this organization is a big part of me. I would love to play here again. Things get interesting in free agency.”
Parker wants to return
After Tuesday’s game, Parker reiterated his desire to continue his career with the Spurs.
Having arrived as a teenage phenom in 2001, Parker is the longest-running Spur on the roster. His chances of returning hinge on a willingness to accept a bench role and a smaller paycheck.
Ginobili, meanwhile, advised not to expect news of his future until July.
“I usually let it sink in and see how it feels,” Ginobili said. “It’s just a matter if I see myself as an ex-player or not.”
For now, the Spurs would prefer to look back instead of forward.
Successful seasons are in the eye of the beholder, and they don’t all get to end in champagne.